Should I get another letter for AMCAS/AACOMAS?

[ATPsynthase123]

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I am debating on getting another letter to add to my: Physician letter, Genetics professor/PI letter, and committee letter (contains 4 letters of evaluation from professors, two of which are dept. heads).

As for additional letters I have a few options:

1. Cell Biology professor and my major advisor: very nice person, liked me, I aced his class. Taking Cell bio lab with him next semester.
   
   
2. Employer at my universities tutoring center: knows me very well, can attest to my people skills and ability to deal with difficult tutoring situations, appointed me leader of the Gen Chem Study Table.
   
   
3. Philosophy professor: taken logic and ethics courses with him, we got along very well and I did pretty well in his classes (B+ and B). He is a bit of a wild card and has been blacklisted from writing committee lettersfor trashing A students and agreeing to write letters them backing out at the due date.
   
   
4. History professor: taken one class with him, aced the class. We got along very well, he knew my goals and helped me with papers and I was very vocal in his class.
   
   
5. Gen Chem professor: A- in his class, got to know him very well throughout the semester, as I was in his office often for help, very nice guy. The downside is that I have not seen him in 3 years, I would doubt that he would even remember me.
   
   
6. Professors from community college days: two of them I got to know very well and did we'll in their classes. I don't know how much weight they would carry though (one is Biology 1 the other is Anatomy and Physiology 1)
   

The issue that I am having is that my committee letter required 4 letters from faculty, so I exhausted the professors that would give very strong letters on that. Is it worth getting 1-2 more letters if they may not be extremely strong (or at least as strong as the original 3)?

 

[thatwouldbeanarchy]

You're sending a total of 6 letters, including all of the letters attached to your committee letter. Many schools will count the committee packet as 1 letter but still... Why would you need more letters? Especially if they're not the strongest. Remember it's not about the quantity of letters you send (beyond the minimum for each school), it's about the quality. You're already going above and beyond in terms of quantity.

At a certain point, all you're doing is making more work for the adcoms who have to read them. I say no, no more letters. 🙂

 

[candbgirl]

Why did you even include a physician letter? Unless you are applying DO and the school requires it , physician letters carry almost no weight. If you MUST send another letter none of these look great, in fact #3-6 are big NOs. I don't think you should submit any additional letters. You have already submitted six and the ones you propose don't seem like they would help at all. Any indication how your committee letter is?


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[ATPsynthase123]

You have more than enough now, if not actually too many.

Those were possible letters. As of know i have three: PI letter, Committee Letter, DO letter.

 

[ATPsynthase123]

Why did you even include a physician letter? Unless you are applying DO and the school requires it , physician letters carry almost no weight. If you MUST send another letter none of these look great, in fact #3-6 are big NOs. I don't think you should submit any additional letters. You have already submitted six and the ones you propose don't seem like they would help at all. Any indication how your committee letter is?


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Hopefully really good (they dont actually tell you how you did), I did very well in the interviews and have good ECs. So the only thing that will bring it down is a 3.56 cGPA and a 3.52 BCPM. Not great but not a terrible GPA. I think overall the committee letter should be good.

 

[ATPsynthase123]

You're sending a total of 6 letters, including all of the letters attached to your committee letter. Many schools will count the committee packet as 1 letter but still... Why would you need more letters? Especially if they're not the strongest. Remember it's not about the quantity of letters you send (beyond the minimum for each school), it's about the quality. You're already going above and beyond in terms of quantity.

At a certain point, all you're doing is making more work for the adcoms who have to read them. I say no, no more letters. 🙂

Think so? Many people i see talking about this are saying they are sending 5-6 letters. I feel lacking with just my 3.

 

[candbgirl]

Think so? Many people i see talking about this are saying they are sending 5-6 letters. I feel lacking with just my 3.

You are sending 6. All of your letters go with the committee letter and are read by the ADCOMS at the various schools. You really don't need any more letters, especially from people who probably don't remember you(per your own descriptions of possibilities). Your letters are sufficient in number. Good luck.


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[thatwouldbeanarchy]

Think so? Many people i see talking about this are saying they are sending 5-6 letters. I feel lacking with just my 3.

If your letters are strong and you're meeting the minimum requirement for the schools you're applying to, you will not be lacking. As @gonnif said, there is such a thing as sending too many letters. Don't worry about how many other people are sending because they're probably overdoing it.